Despite having only three active members on its five-member Commission and having no General Counsel, the EEOC has remained quite busy in its strategic enforcement of federal workplace discrimination laws. You may remember that since the 2016 election, the EEOC has been operating with an acting Republican Chair and two Democratic Commissioners, with the remaining two Republican Commission seats vacant while President Trump’s nominees are tied up in the confirmation process. One might think that the absence of a General Counsel and two Commissioners would hamper the EEOC’s enforcement efforts, but one would be wrong. EEOC litigation picked up in the fiscal year ended September 30, 2018, and the agency just held a major public hearing in October to further its focus on workplace harassment.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) recently released statistics on its worksite enforcement activities for the federal fiscal year ending on September 30, 2018. It should surprise no one that worksite enforcement designed to crack down on the employment of undocumented aliens has skyrocketed.

While not exactly a Thanksgiving “miracle,” many retirement plan sponsors were no doubt thankful for the IRS’ recent issuance of proposed regulations (the “Proposed Regs”) addressing changes to the Code §401(k) and 403(b) plan hardship withdrawal rules enacted as part of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (the “Act”). The Proposed Regs answer several questions raised by the Act, and provide plan sponsors with significant flexibility in how (and when) they implement the changes.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) recently announced that, by spring 2019, it will begin notifying each employer (and third-party payroll company) that has submitted at least one Form W-2 that contains name and Social Security Number (SSN) combinations that do not match the agency’s records. These Employer Correction Notices have been commonly known as “no-match” letters.

Employee handbooks are an often neglected and underappreciated company document. Preparing, maintaining, and updating a handbook that reflects the policies of your company and your operations takes time and expertise. A well-written employee handbook can be an effective document to ensure compliance with applicable laws as they evolve and as new laws go into effect. An outdated handbook can be a liability.